Virginia ? A criminal justice professor and her daughter, who police say were slain by a horrorcore rapper, were in counseling over the teenager’s obsession with the macabre music, and the mother took her daughter to the concerts to keep an eye on her, a family friend said Wednesday.

Debra Kelley, 53, an associate professor at Longwood University, was hoping that Emma Niederbrock was just “going through a phase,” said James F. Hodgson, a former colleague who had known Emma since she was about 1 year old. He said Kelley took her to horrorcore concerts, which feature artists who rhyme violent lyrics over hip-hop beats, in Michigan and Illinois.

Kelley and Emma were found bludgeoned to death Friday at their Farmville home in central Virginia along with Kelley’s estranged husband and Emma’s father, the Rev. Mark Niederbrock, 50, and Emma’s friend Melanie Wells, 18, of Inwood, W.Va.

Police have charged Emma’s boyfriend, Richard “Sammy” McCroskey III, 20, of Castro Valley, Calif., with first-degree murder in Mark Niederbrock’s death. McCroskey is also suspected in the other killings.